Feed supplement compositions for consumption by animals are now in widespread commercial use. Dry supplement compositions are usually formulated to contain urea in combination with various carriers and nutrients, including cellulose, starch, soybean meal as carriers and sugars as nutrients. A disadvantage of such dry feed supplements is the difficulty in achieving uniform distribution of components throughout the composition. In addition, dry supplements which contain multiple components having varying particle sizes are susceptible to segregation of the components during storage which further reduces the uniformity of component distribution throughout the composition.
More recently, interest has turned to liquid feed supplement compositions which have numerous advantages as compared to dry feed supplement compositions. Since these supplements are in the liquid phase, the different components can be uniformly distributed throughout the liquid phase with relative ease. In addition, such liquid feed supplement compositions can be produced more economically in terms of capital investment because the only apparatus required includes mixing tanks and pumps, whereas the manufacture of dry supplement compositions requires more elaborate materials handling equipment.
However, it has been found that fluid suspension animal feed supplements suffer the disadvantage of being relatively unstable. The fluid compositions tend to undergo settling of solid constituents and formation of solid aggregates. These changes impair the flow rates and viscosity values of the suspensions. The inherent difficulties with fluid animal feed compositions are described and improvements are proposed in technical publications such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,684,518; 3,794,740; 3,934,041; 4,267,197; 4,382,966; 4,937,082; and 4,994,284.
There is continuing interest in the research and development of new and improved liquid suspension animal feed compositions.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a stable liquid nutrient suspension composition for application as an animal feed supplement.
It is another object of this invention to provide a liquid nutrient formulation which is an aqueous suspension having a high fat content, and containing additional biologically active ingredients.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention shall become apparent from the accompanying description and examples.